Women architects at work Making American modernism

Historian Hunting (Edward Durell Stone) and Vanderbilt University architecture professor Murphy (The Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris) team up for a valuable survey of modernist women architects. Many of the subjects attended the Cambridge School for Architecture and Landscape Architecture from 1915 to 1942, where they were guided away from the reigning Beaux Arts style, and toward modernist architecture (some traveled to Europe and Mexico to see modernist buildings firsthand). According to the authors, the women embraced the basic elements of modernist design--functionality, simple geometric forms, minimum decoration, open interiors--while prioritizing "human needs" over the "abstract modern principles" championed by most male architects. Among those spotlighted are well-known architects like Harlem-born Norma Merrick Sklarek, who ascended to become the director of architecture at Victor Gruen Associates in Los Angeles, and others who parlayed their skills into adjacent carers, including Ernestine Marie Fantl, who worked as a curator of what is now the Department of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art; and Elisabeth Coit, who advocated for low-cost housing. Interspersed with ample photos and sketches (Eleanor Raymond's buildings; Amaza Lee Meredith's plans for a Black residential community), this is a comprehensive and welcome revival of a lesser-known chapter in the history of architecture. Photos. (Feb.)

Histories of modern architecture often focus on the work of prolific individuals with lifelong careers, which contributes to the underrepresentation of women architects, as their work rarely fits this mold. By closely studying graduates of the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (1915--42), a graduate program for women in Massachusetts, and other women in architecture from the same period, authors and scholars Hunting (Edward Durell Stone: Modernism's Populist Architect) and Murphy (history of art and architecture, Vanderbilt Univ.) identified an array of roles women played in the history of modernism in the United States. In addition to practicing architects, there were women who became authors, editors, educators, housing or community designers, craftspeople, entrepreneurs, and curators, and they helped spread modern architecture from these vantage points. Source material for the book includes women's personal archives and scrapbooks still held by their descendants. A network analysis of the ties among the women fills some of the gap left by a lack of written descriptions of these important professional and personal connections. VERDICT This book models the research and scholarship needed to more fully represent women in the history of architecture. The result is a richer story of both women in architecture and modernism in the United States.--Amy Trendler

Women who designed America. In a profusely illustrated volume, architectural historians Hunting and Murphy offer a detailed group portrait of early- to mid-20th-century female architects, many educated at the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Massachusetts. Established in 1915 for women's professional education, the school continued until 1942, when women finally were allowed into Harvard's architecture department. Although by 1928 at least 27 accredited schools of architecture accepted women, those students often felt unwelcomed by classmates and faculty. The Cambridge School, exceptionally, supported its students' talents, providing an interdisciplinary perspective and an emphasis on collaboration. Besides benefiting from its pedagogy, students were immersed in the intellectual community of Cambridge, where European Modernism took root early. The school encouraged international connections; in 1935, for example, it sent 14 students on a summer study tour of modern architecture in Western Europe, and many made independent trips to Europe and Mexico. The women were as prepared as possible for a field "fraught with sexism in hiring practices, promotions, titles, assignments, salaries, and construction-site supervision." As challenging as the field was, many attained positions through school connections; others established partnerships with one another, their husbands, or architects who emigrated from Europe. Excluded from all-male architectural societies, they forged their own social and professional networks. Besides designing houses throughout the country, the women, with an interest in fostering community, became involved in urban and suburban planning. Many extended their artistic talents to designing furniture, toys, jewelry, textiles--and even shoes, such as architect Alice Morgan Carson's stunning pair of needlepoint heels that she likened to the art deco Chrysler Building. Although the authors found uneven archival sources, they have succeeded in reviving the work of scores of impressive women. A well-populated, deeply researched history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.